MARGARET LISS:
A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.
Another week of Dave Sim’s notebooks, another look at his sixth notebooks. Dave’s sixth notebook has 158 pages scanned in and covers Cerebus #49 through 59. For the last month or so we’ve been making our way through Dave’s thumbnails for Cerebus #53. From the cover thumbnail on page 30 of the notebook to today’s look at thumbnails for pages 9 and 10.
The thumbnails for pages 9 and 10 of Cerebus #53, which is pages 37 and 38 of Church & State I if you’re following along in the phonebook, are on page 38 of the notebook:
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| Notebook #6, page 38 |
The text near the top right corner of the notebook page says:
This can go on for a while. . .would you mind going (illegible)?
Men, mostly
My problems mostly involve men. Would you mind going um. . .upstairs. . .
The dialogue is the Countess and it kind of shows up in panel one of page 9:
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| The finished page 9 and the thumbnail, click to embiggen |
Both thumbnails look very similar to the finished pages.
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| The finished page 10 and the thumbnail, click to embiggen |
3 comments:
#53 has been my favorite issue of the entire series since it first came out. Thanks for the extended dive into its creation!
You know, I keep thinking something like this. I don't know about favorite issue, but #53 was some kind of milestone in my Cerebus fandom experience. (Maybe it was the part about the butler.)
I, too, express my gratitude for the extensive look-behind-the-scenes.
Thanks Michael and Tony, I'm glad to hear you are enjoying this in-depth look at Dave's notebook pages for Cerebus #53. The notebook has more thumbnails and notes for #53, so we'll continue with them. Splashed in-between are some Silverspoon items and Wolveroach, which I think will be fun to look out when we're done with #53.
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